• The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, August 23, 2007 11:15 AM

Facebook Inc. will unveil an ad system late this fall that will let marketers target users based on the information they reveal on the social-networking web site about themselves. Eventually, the system will allow the company to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they mention an area.

The new service would let advertisers visit a Web site to choose a much wider array of characteristics for users who should see their ads -- based not only on age, gender and location, but also on favorite activities and preferred music. Facebook would use its technology to point the ads to the selected groups of people without exposing their personal information to the advertisers.

Facebook hopes allowing advertisers to buy customized ads online will be a less labor-intensive way to take advantage of the personal data people reveal on the site. Getting this right is important. While the Web site had roughly 30.6 million visitors in July, the company says it needs to do a better job profiting from its huge user base.

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